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Six Nations Preview: England vs Italy
By James Harrington
England vs Italy at Twickenham
(Sunday, February 26, 11pm HKT)
The trip to Twickenham looks a lot like Mission: Impossible for Italy.
What we can expect
Tries. Lots and lots of tries. Mostly English ones. Chances of Italy not recording their 75th Six Nations defeat? Zero.
England
Eddie Jones promised to shake up selection for this match against Italy - and he has made four changes. Ben Te'o is in the England starting line-up for the first time, while Danny Care replacing Ben Youngs. Jonny May gets the nod on the wing, while James Haskell replaces Jack Clifford in the back row. Dylan Hartley holds on to the captaincy, but Owen Farrell will lead the side out to mark his 50th England cap. The big surprise is the total absence of Anthony Watson.
Matchday 23: Brown, May, Te'o, Farrell, Daly, Ford, Care; Marler, Hartley, Cole, Launchbury, Lawes, Itoje, Haskell, Hughes Bench: George, Vunipola, Sinckler, Wood, Clifford, Youngs, Slade, Nowell
Italy
The Azzurri are on a hiding to nothing. After leaking 96 points in their opening two matches, they will have to regard an England score of anything less than 60 as a major improvement. Coach Conor O'Shea has made four changes to the starting line-up, with Tommasso Allan in the pivotal fly-half role, and Michele Campagnaro finally getting his chance to shine in midfield.
Matchday 23: Padovani, Bisegni, Campagnaro, McLean, Venditti, Allan, Gori; Lovotti, Ghiraldini, Cittadini, Fuser, Van Schalkwyk, Steyn, Favaro, Parisse (c) Bench: Gega, Rizzo, Ceccarelli, Biagi, Mbanda, Bronzini, Canna, Benvenuti
All eyes on: Michele Campagnaro
After two weeks' dutiful bench-warming duty, the Exeter Chiefs' centre finally gets the start his talents deserve - though O'Shea has handed him something of a poison chalice. No one, not even the die-hardest Azzurri, expects anything other than a big England win at Headquarters.
Key battle: Te'o and Farrell v Campagnaro and McLean
Italy will be out to test England's latest new-look midfield partnership - but you'd expect Te'o and Farrell to be able handle anything Campagnaro and McLean could throw at them.
Prediction
Very big numbers. England by a cricket score.
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Latest Comments
No just because the personal is much better than last year. I've shown no antagonism of Crusader players, you must be confusing me with someone else.
I have critized Razor for picking players he knows occasionally?
I said I'm not surprised because of his style, he's more a grinder player like Cane, not going to show up on peoples radar until you see how bad the other choices are. This year players like Clarke have been on fire and just show a bit more.
Are you one of those posters continually taking it easy on Razor because he doesn't have his Crusaders stars available? Do you think the rugby world is going to up to him suddenly once Mo'unga returns? lol
Go to commentsJohn you have been beating this drum for a couple of years, if you get proven right get back to us.
The last recent and decent Aussie coach was Ewen McKenzie, he was undermined and forced out by a couple of slimy Aussie players who were given a free pass when they should have been disciplined.
So our history since McQueen is very checkered and it seems to make little difference whether we have an Aussie coach or a Kiwi coach. The players have been entitled for a long time and we had to hit bottom to get them back into reality and to stop thinking it is all about them.
Cheika was an OK coach but his 'go our and destroy the opposition' tactic worked for a while and then didn't.
Please give me a list of great Aussie coaches that I have missed.
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